Can you imagine the discussion in the break-out sessions at the latest Convention on Conventional Dieting?

“It’s just that this irritating evidence in favour of low-carbs is mounting every day; I mean how long can we keep rubbishing it?” Replying in that exasperated nasal tone, “I know, what will happen to our Food Based Dietary Guidelines? You know our default Low-Fat Slimming Diet safety blanket?” “I mean my clients are starting to ask me uncomfortable questions about the food pyramid! They say their friends are losing visible amounts of weight from one week to the next eating bacon and eggs, while they continually have to assure everyone they’re still watching their weight!”

I’m watching with great interest, and a wry smile. I mean how many studies by the world’s best medical research schools on the efficacy of a high-fat, low-carb diet (in humans not rats) are needed? Surely there must be something to this ketosis malarkey after all? (Anyone who tells you nutritional ketosis is a dangerous condition is talking nonsense BTW – as always Google “Nutritional Ketosis” and see for yourself – plenty of doctors and medical professors will explain it to you there).

Sweden – 10th on the list of life expectancy at 83 years – has just become the first Western nation to OFFICIALLY REJECT the popular low-fat dogma in favour of LOW-CARB, HIGH FAT dietary guidelines. This changes everything. The Food Based Dietary Guidelines of Sweden are now suggesting you ramp up your fat consumption people! Why? Because they decided to do their own research (from over 16,000 high quality studies on human nutrition) and then base their recommendations on EVIDENCE, not untested hypothesis.

BTW – the Mediterranean Diet often touted on the basis that the Greeks live longer than their European counterparts, another lie to further subjective opinion, is creeping into the dietary narrative. Greek life expectancy is lower than almost every major European nation, sure it is still high by global stats, but no more than Britain’s. One wonders why there isn’t a media-driven, branded Austrian diet, or a German diet or a Scandinavian diet if life expectancy is why we follow diets. I know. Because this feel-good, romanticized version of something often drives nutritional dogma.

Eat Med if you want, it looks pretty healthy, but I think it’s the nutritional establishment’s way of sneaking lower-carb eating into the discourse without them having to admit the science is making their ‘low-fat’ belligerence look bad.

As always….don’t believe me. Google “Sweden’s dietary guidelines” or “23 studies of low-carb and low-fat”; just read the articles from the highly respected peer-reviewed medical journals. Then you decide which side of the fence you’d rather be with your personal health.

The next question is when do we get South Africa to change their dietary guidelines? I think Tim Noakes has kicked off a valuable public discussion; his legacy will be how used his running reputation to change the way we think about diet and lifestyle. Africa needs to deal with this issue - West Africa’s obesity incidence has doubled in the last 15 years. Fifteen years! Get this…in South Africa almost half of all people over the age of 15 is overweight. Half! And 20% have a BMI of over 30. In a country where our primary health care response traditionally focuses on under-nourished children – 1 in 5 children under 6 is overweight. Yes obesity and poverty are undeniably positively related, meaning it effects poor people more, but get this - more South African’s are dying from obesity related complications than poverty; yet where’s the public health response? (Google “Obesity rates in South Africa” & “More South African adults now die from obesity than from poverty” for credible references, not newspaper articles)

My personal dietary mantra is ‘EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT – SO EVERY DIET SHOULD BE DIFFERENT’. Learn to experiment with what you eat. I am not sure how a health professional can recommend the SAME SOLUTION to EVERYONE, day in and day out. I think that lacks integrity. I wish it ended there, but not only do Diet Doctors recommend the same diet to every individual, they actively attack anyone that suggests an evidence-based solution like low-carb eating may be beneficial to many of us. Personally, I have encountered hundreds of people that have had genuinely life-changing experiences after eating high-fat, low-carb diets for a few weeks; many of whom spent years going hungry in a desperate attempt to cut their “calories in to below their calories out”. The sheer number of people sharing their positive, life-changing experiences on high-fat, low-carb eating simply cannot be ignored.

This way of eating is anything but a fad. It’s an establishment. And hats off to the Swedes for making it even more so! Is that bacon I smell…..or is it the smell of inevitability?

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